The Best Films of 2017

Do I mean best or favourite? Since art is entirely subjective and there can be no objective measure of success outside of the financial, obviously I mean best.

The two pieces of 2017 art that moved me the most were the new series of Twin Peaks, and the album Whiteout Conditions by The New Pornographers. But some of the movies were pretty good too. I dug Logan, Lucky and Logan Lucky. I enjoyed Wonder Women, Wonderstruck and Wonder Wheel, but missed Wonder and Professor Marston and the Wonder Women. I saw Coralie Fargeat’s Revenge and Alice Lowe’s Prevenge. I enjoyed Gerald’s Game, and waited for Molly’s Game. I started the year with1994’s Ladybird Ladybird and ended it with 2017’s Lady Bird. It’s important to maintain variety.

My approach to release dates is haphazard and designed to annoy. There are some 2016 films that were not released in Australia until 2017. There are some 2017 films that won’t be released in Australia until 2018. And there are some 1992 films that trump everything released this year because nobody’s figured out how to make a film better than Sneakers.

Also, I do a film podcast. It’s good. You should listen.

All right. On with it. From my arbitrarily-numbered yet mandatorily-divisible-by-five list of favourite films, it hurt to cut: Moonlight, 20th Century Women, Prevenge, Colossal.

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